Dimension Hoppers
by Yuuki F
Summary: In medias res one-shot.  Weird behavior from Yuki Nagato coincides with dimension hopping cats.


"How do I even know that the events taking place right now are not the result of some sort of hallucination?"

I nearly wanted to rip my face off! I mean, it was somewhat confusing, yet a cute aspect of his personality that Shamisen spoke as such a philosophical skeptic last time; but it nearly made it impossible to talk with him.

"But wouldn't it be beneficial to assume for the moment that that is the case, since you have experienced such a high probability of such events that you've seen to predict events in such a way?"

"It is not immediately evident that a high predictability of events necessitates a future predictive quantity of events."

That's it. It really _was_ frustrating to talk to this cat.

Fortunately, Koizumi intervened and placed a hand on my shoulder, "I understand why you are upset, but I think Shamisen's actions are explainable and indicative. Say that cats such as Shamisen _could_ travel between parallel universes. Furthermore, it may be possible that the very laws of physics could be different in these different parallel dimensions. Things are so different, in fact, that it _necessitates_ you to be a complete skeptic on what you experience. To the majority of people living on Earth, the universe is incredibly stable. The speed of light is constant, heat conductivity through a rod is constant, and the Sun rises in the east and falls in the west. Experiential evidence of the senses can be taken for granted, indeed, in this universe, it helps one's survival. However, let's take a different scenario in which you are a dimension hopper. The speed of light might be different from one day to the next, the Sun might corkscrew in the sky one day, and the next day it may rise and then fall in the north. You may end up in a universe in which it is necessary to be skeptical of all experiential evidence in order to survive."

Shamisen grunted, "Yes, it would be very reasonable for a creature with such an ability to develop such an outlook. I most certainly agree."

I wasn't exactly clear on the reasoning that just happened, but I jumped on what I think Shamisen had agreed to, "Ah! So you can travel between dimensions then!"

Shamisen waved a paw, "I did not agree or disagree to that claim. I just agreed with his reasoning that IF I were a dimension hopper that it would explain my temperament, not the converse."

I was about to get frustrated again, when Asahina stopped me, "Well, do you think you might be able to show us what might or might not be dimension hopping?"

Shamisen grunted again, "Mm, yeah, I could probably do something which may or may not look like that to you. You'll just have to take me back with where you found me, if such a place continues to exist, or ever did exist in the first place; and assuming that my memories of existence hold up with yo-"

I put my hand on Shamisen's head gently, "Please. Stop."

I picked up Shamisen and looked over to Koizumi, "Shall we go?"

Koizumi nodded, "Alright, let's get this over with then."

We quickly made our way out of my house, and with Koizumi's eerie taxi-calling abilities, made it to the cat location of the filming we had frequented before with no real time difference at all.

Asahina wandered towards and pondered at the litter, "So then, do all of them have the same ability?"

"Mm, no, not really. Well, probably not."

"Then why are they all here?"

"Well, while it is true that there are many more like myself than you may think, and that they are a few others like myself right here, that does not mean we are all creatures with the same ability, as indeed is the case here. Rather, a few of us with that ability came here because of the unique conditions apparent here, and the others came because we had already congregated here."

"Crowds beget crowds then," Koizumi mused.

"Right," Shamisen nodded.

"You sound decidedly sure about that statement," I scoffed.

"I am being sure about a vacuous statement: that is that cats have sensible behaviors."

Koizumi chuckled a bit in response.

...Wait, did Shamisen just pull a zinger on me or himself?

Koizumi started up again, "Well, while this is certainly interesting, I don't see how any of this will lead us any closer to what is going on with Miss Nagato. Indeed, as the two of you might have expected, this was all just a hunch anyways. It could entirely be the case that whiles this is going on, an entirely different thing is occurring with Miss Nagato."

While what Koizumi said was correct, something told me that this was the right track. It was indeed probably the case that Haruhi was behind the dimension hopping cats **and** whatever was going on with the strange behavior going on lately with Yuki. But moreover, Haruhi usually had a _reason_ to cause such things to happen. She might have seen some sci-fi show about people hopping between dimensions, and then another show about people having secret lovers initiating strange behavior and disappearances popped on immediately afterwards. Or, more likely, she saw a sci-fi show about dimension-hopping cats causing strange behavior in androids. The point being, if multiple weird things occurred as a result of Haruhi's imagination, then the events which fueled her imagination were probably likely to have occurred in nearly consequent order to one another some previous time in reality.

Great, now I was reasoning like Koizumi.

Koizumi looked over at me, "You don't know if Haruhi suddenly started watching some strange dimension hopping sci-fi show recently, d-"

"I was just thinking the same thing," I shook my head, "And no, I don't."

"I see..."

I repeated my other line of reasoning to hopefully convince Koizumi that investigating Shamisen like this wasn't just a...cat and mouse game, "But look, what is happening here is most likely due to Haruhi. Dimension hopping cats sounds right about up her ally. And, something being powerful enough to mess with Yuki? That too sounds right about up Haruhi's ally. And if multiple weird things occurred and are a result of Haruhi's imagination, then they're probably dependent upon each other somehow.

Asahina and Koizumi looked at me and blinked.

Koizumi laughed, scratching his head, "Well, I certainly didn't expect to hear something like that from you."

I gave a pointed look at Koizumi, "I've been running into plenty of near-death-of-the-universe situations where I didn't have any of your help lately."

I sighed and then commented, "But...even if we do see Shamisen's little parlor trick...I don't see how it'll help us...I didn't really think this through."

Asahina began fidgeting, grabbing our attention, "Uhm, maybe it would be best if we just went ahead and talked with Yuki again?"

Koizumi sighed, "While I appreciate the direct approach (to which I immediately gave Koizumi an odd glance, "Really, Koizumi? _You_ do things without five layers of subterfuge?")," he shifted a bit before wistfully continuing, "Ms. Nagato is the kind who is rather steadfast on things."

I sighed, "Hey Shamisen, you happen to hear anything about Yuki through the grapevine?"

Shamisen looked up, "That dame I was climbing on last time we were here?"

"Yes."

Shamisen pondered a bit, then shook his head, "No, I don't remember having any sensory phenomena on things that might have a resemblance to your conception of dealing with what may be her or even an alternate representation of her..." I gave Shamisen a curt glare, "But I can go check."

And with that, Shamisen turned around, and walked into a spot in the middle of the cat congregation where he, in thin air, did what could best be vaguely described as "Walked around a corner." He subsequently vanished.

Koizumi gave a thoughtful gaze, "Huh. That was kind of familiar to how I enter closed space."

The three of us stood guard for five minutes, regarding the place where Shamisen had vanished in a reverent silence.

Asahina finally spoke up, "Uhm. We never asked how long it would take him."

I subsequently face-palmed upon this realization.

Koizumi sighed, "Well, I could ask someone from the organization to stand watc-"

Just then, Shamisen appeared, 'turning a corner' to appear back in thin air.

I looked up with a gladdened expression, "What did you find out?"

Shamisen looked up at me and for once stated something with no uncertainty, "Your Ms. Nagato is having an affair with a fellow dimension traveler."

I gave Shamisen a flat look.

"What."

Really, nothing could even begin to describe the amount of muddling confusion my brain was processing upon hearing that statement. Yuki? Yuki Nagato of all people having a secret love affair?

Koizumi gave a matter-of-fact nod, "Well, at least we now know that it's nothing too dangerous."

Really? Yuki had to be one of the most emotionless people...android...whatever, that I had ever seen. To even think of her doing something like _that_ was-

Asahina raised her hand again, "I have a suggestion?"

I gave another sigh, "Sure."

"Maybe we should just...leave it at that?"

I looked over to Koizumi, who shrugged in response, "It does seem like we've invaded Ms. Nagato's privacy enough. Besides, she hasn't seemed too troubled lately, now that I think of it."

There is a general rule in any group of humans: the most apathetic solution one can get away with will most likely be chosen.

I nodded my head, bending down to pick Shamisen back up, suddenly finding myself not caring about the situation altogether, "Yeah, sure."


End file.
